Blonde · 5 minute read
What is balayage, and is it different from highlights?
Balayage is a painting technique, highlights are a foil technique, and they grow out completely differently. Which one to book, and what each costs in Utah.
Balayage is a technique, not a shade. The lightener is painted on freehand, in a sweep, so it starts soft at the top and gets brighter towards the ends.
Highlights are woven and wrapped in foil, which gives control, brightness and lift right up to the root. Both are good. They just solve different problems.
The sequence
The difference is where the lightener starts
Everything that follows, the cost, the grow out, the visit frequency, comes from that one decision about where the light begins.
- 01
Balayage
Painted, no foil at the root. Soft transition, grows out with no line, 12 to 16 weeks between visits.
- 02
Foil highlights
Woven and wrapped, lift right at the scalp. Maximum brightness, a visible line at 8 weeks.
- 03
Babylights
Very fine foils, used to blend a balayage upward or soften a regrowth line.
- 04
Foilyage
Painted then wrapped, for people who want balayage softness with more lift than paint alone gives.
Potential solutions
What actually works.
Book balayage if you want low maintenance
Two or three visits a year, no hard line at the parting, and it suits mid length to long hair best.
Book foils if you want bright
If the goal is an evenly light blonde or full coverage of grey at the same time, foils will get there and balayage will not.
Combine them
A balayage with a few foils around the face is the most requested blonde in the salon, and it reads brighter than either alone.
Add a gloss either way
Tone is what makes a painted blonde look expensive rather than streaky.
What to avoid
The things that make it worse.
- Asking for balayage when you mean bright blonde all over. That is a foil appointment, and the mismatch is the most common disappointment in blonde.
- Balayage on very short hair. There is not enough length for the gradient to happen.
- Refreshing a balayage by painting over the same panels every time. Placement should move, or it turns into a stripe.
- Judging it wet. Painted colour reads completely different dry and styled, which is why we finish before you decide.
How we recreate it
Step by step, in the salon.
- 01
Bring two photos
One you love and one you would hate. The second one tells us more.
- 02
Say your maintenance number
How many salon visits a year you actually want decides the technique.
- 03
Agree the depth at the root
How dark the top stays is the single biggest choice in balayage.
- 04
Gloss and finish
Tone set, then cut and styled so you see the real result.
- 05
Book the refresh
Twelve to sixteen weeks, with a gloss if you want it brighter sooner.
Laila's pro tip
Balayage lives or dies on the placement of the very first sweep, and that is decided while your hair is dry, standing up, before a drop of product is mixed. If nobody looked at how your hair falls before they started painting, you are getting a pattern rather than a design.
Laila Grigley, Creative Director
Book with the Creative Colour teamCommon questions
Straight answers.
- How much is balayage?
- It is quoted as custom colour, $200 to $250 depending on your stylist's level, with a gloss included.
- Does balayage damage hair less?
- Usually yes, because the root area is left alone and less of the head is lightened at once.